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Timeline
This represents an attempt to piece together a basic timeline of the series, using mostly information internal in the stories, and the chronology published in the author's blog, cf. a chronology of rivers-of-london books. *Action at a Distance, an untitled Nightingale novella and the short story Cock of the Wall are said to be "outside the main sequence". *While the novels, except Lies Sleeping, do not mention any dates, the "Moments" are actually dated in their respective subtitles to a specific year (1966, 2012, 2014), and the graphic novels contain several panels that are explicitly dated. From these hints, the following, tentative and possibly inconsistent timeline can be inferred: *1900 **Nightingale born. *1943 **Action at a Distance, part 1 ***Nightingale downs a German bomber during WW II ***Said to happen 14 years before the main story, dated 1957 *1945 **The raid on Ettersberg. *1957 **Action at a Distance, main story ***Nightingale in London, Strallen/Fisher report read by Peter Grant in framing story *1966 **''Moments one'' ***Nightingale in London *2011 **Detective Stories #4, States of Mind ***Summer, over a year before the events in Moon over Soho *2012 **Rivers of London ***Starts in January. ***The exchange of hostages (Beverley and Ash) takes place on June 21st, Midsummer, at the Summer Court of Father Thames. **''Moments three'' ***Tobias Winter in Meckenheim **The Home Crowd Advantage ***Peter Grant in London during the summer Olympics of 2012 **The Domestic **Moon over Soho ***Quote at beginning: "Soho on a hot summer night" ***Quote at end: "It was a cold miserable day in October" ***Presumably late summer 2012. **Detective Stories #3, Cry Me a River ***Panel dated as November 2012. **Whispers Under Ground ***Quote from the first page: "on the last Sunday before Christmas" ***Referenced in Detective Stories #2 as “Christmas 2012”. ****The weekdays given in the chapter headings seem to imply that Christmas Day is Sunday, which would fit 2011 but not 2012. We must perhaps assume this is an inconsistency left in the MS. *2013 **Detective Stories #2, Old Soldiers ***Panel dated as January 20th 2013. **The Cockpit **Broken Homes ***Presumably spring 2013, since Beverley says to Peter, regarding he has not sent any message during her hostage time, "not one in nine months". ***Varvara Sidorovna's arrest, referred to in next book as "two months before" (August), must have taken place in June. ***Operation Tinker took place in spring 2013.Night Witch **Body Work **Foxglove Summer ***Said to happen in August, presumably 2013. However weather in the UK was good for June and July and terrible in August, starting with thunderstorms on the 2nd and then deteriorating. Peter has only been with the Folly for a little over a year at this point. "You have been with the SAU for over a Year? ... Since February last year." **The Loneliness of the Long Distance Granny ***Set immediately after Foxglove Summer **What Abigail Did That Summer (unpublished novella) **Night Witch **King of the Rats ***''Word of Author'' **Black Mould **Favourite Uncle ***Dated in sub-title as “Christmas 2013” *2014 **''Moments two'' ***Kimberley Reynolds in Florence, Arizona, 2014. When she meets Peter in The Hanging Tree she mentions her (largely unsuccessful) hunt for revenants, so this must have happened rather early in 2014. **The Furthest Station *** late July **Detective Stories #1, Magic Circle ***Panel dated as September 8th 2014. **The Hanging Tree ***Refers the events of "Foxglove Summer" as "the previous summer". ***A quoted Daily Express headline, "UKIP TO ROCK WESTMINSTER", was actually used at October 9th, 2014. ***Peter says of FBI Agent Kimberley Reynolds: "We'd met a couple of years back ... exchanged may be five emails apiece since then --- mostly at Christmas". They first met in "Whispers Under Ground". **''A rare book of cunning device'' ***Said to happen 17 years after the British Library was built in 1997. **Untitled Agent Reynolds novella (unpublished) **Detective Stories (framing story) *2015 **Cry Fox *** Dated in a panel as "... a spring afternoon". **Water Weed ***A panel shows Nightingale reading The Daily Telegraph, the front page of which seems to be all about the recent Queens Birthday Honours. This would imply late June. **Action at a Distance (framing story) **Lies Sleeping ***Set in 2015 by word of the authorTwitter ***The opening page of the Prologue pinpoints the start of Operation Jennifer to 14 Nov 2014. ***In chapter 10, on a Tuesday, Nightingale is on duty protecting the US First Lady visiting a school in Whitechapel. Michelle Obama did in fact visit Mulberry School for Girls on Tuesday June 16th 2015The Telegraph: Michelle Obama hugs pupils on visit to east London school. ***Father Thames holds his Summer Court already in chapter 12, so we must assume that the action takes place during the summer. ***At the conclusion of the book, Abigail goes back to school. **The Fey and the Furious ***According to the title page, the story starts immediately after Lies Sleeping. Peter is still suspended, yet is called into action. It is still a hot summer, since Peter and Beverley are seen bathing and tanning. **The October Man ***Obviously set in October. **Vanessa Sommer’s other Christmas list ***Takes place on the Christmas holiday after Vanessa Sommer transferred to the KDA, thus after the end of The October Man. *2016+ **False Value (unpublished) ***Peter’s first day at the Serious Cybernetics Corporation coincides with the death of David Bowie, which pinpoints the date to January 10th, 2016.https://www.gollancz.co.uk/uncategorized/2019/12/18/read-an-exclusive-extract-from-false-value/ References Category:Chronology